Tag: actor

What makes you cry?

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Dear Readers,

Last night I went to see a phenomenal show “When the Rain Stops Falling” – If you are one of my local readers in Austin, you should go see it, its heartfelt, extremely well written, directed and acted. I can not say enough good things about this show.

As an actor myself, it is sometimes hard to see a show I didn’t audition for but nonetheless am unhappy to not be cast in. Rational, no way, but True… This particular show was a notable exception, I thoroughly enjoyed it and didn’t have any feelings of “why wasn’t I in that show?” — It was perfectly cast and I can’t imagine it otherwise.

I promised to be authentic with you because who wants to read fluff. Part of being an artist is being authentic and sharing what isn’t pretty and nice but rather the jagged edges and glass shards of oneself so back to the play.

Why did it move me so? The story is one of heartbreak, loss and redemption involving an extremely bruised family who were just so achingly human. Does it help that some of my friends were in the show and not only good but gave heart breaking performances? Alexandra Russo and Scot Friedman, in case you are not sure who I mean, I just pointed it out, so thank you for giving me such a gift of not only being good people who I am blessed to call friends but fellow artists giving such a good name to the word.

I would like it anyway, but that it was so good made me love it.

The title of this blog post is “what makes you cry?” so I will go back to that. This play made me cry, music and movies sometimes makes me cry. When I am in pain, I cry and sometimes when I am happy I cry. So this makes it sound like I walk around the world sobbing piteously but no, actually its just one snapshot piece of who I am, and my hunch is it is a part of you as well.

Sometimes you just need a good cry, my Mom says that and you know, she is Almost ALWAYS right.

Think about it….

It’s all about perspective….

HastonHelpingHands5 Comments

Dear Readers,

I talk a LOT about perspective on this blog, but you know its an important topic.

If you are someone who is starting a new diet, your perspective might be, “wow, I have a really long way to” but a better way to look at it is. “I am starting something new that is healthy and will take time for me to figure out how to do well”

If you are someone who is planning to run a 10 mile race in three months (insert scream here) you might say.. “gosh I haven’t worked out nearly enough to get to that goal.. but a better way to say it “I have thrown my hat over the wall and made a financial commitment to be more responsible about my health and that will take time and patience”

If you are someone who auditioned for the show “Chicago” with dreams of singing and dancing to “All That Jazz” and didn’t get a callback or the role, you might think, I should just give up, show business is so hard and its really unforgiving, a better way to look at it is. “I held my own with career dancers and brought it with a song” I may not be what they are looking for right now, but one day soon, I will be, I just need to keep working and playing and auditioning and studying and treating myself as the artist I am and it will lead to wonderful things.

So if you are not feeling particularly Pollyanna or Tony Robbins at the moment, I hear that, (that is kind of why I wrote the blog today to snap myself out of a funk) just don’t stay in the funk, take a beat and think about what you can reframe or change in your kaleidoscope and find the best possible way to look at it and think of this…. and be sure to yell, that is the best part of this advice! IMG_0258

Introduction to -Jennifer Haston Says

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My hope is that when reading my blog you are able to get a sense of who I am, but for those wondering here are the Cliff notes.

I am a 36 year old woman who is actively seeking opportunities to help people follow their dreams. It is a lofty goal but I have always aimed high. My heritage is Irish-French which means that I have a hot temper and a romantic heart. I am from New Orleans but do not like spicy foods. I love all kinds of music from ABBA to ZZ Top and will listen to anything once to try it out. I especially love 1980’s rock, and care not who knows it. 

 

I have lived in Austin, Texas for over 15 years and while I don’t consider myself a Texan, its definitely home to me and my husband. I do not own a pair of boots, but have several hats.

I am a wife. 

I am a friend, aunt, and cousin,

I am a personal coach and a motivational speaker.

I am a singer, actor and director.

In the last year, my husband and I have been on the paleo diet and lost over 100 pounds, (him 65, me 55) (if interested in more information on that) see this website http://www.thepaleomom.com/

I have been starting to help my husband cook some of those recipes but not full time cooking as yet. In truth, he is better at it than I am and I am humble enough to admit it.

I believe in God but won’t beat you over the head with my spiritual self. I was raised Catholic and my current denomination like my life, is “in process”.  I like to read, talk, and watch movies. I like having coffee or tea to socialize. I love my phone but I abhor the text messaging that is rampant in our culture. I honestly think it is ending the art of conversation as we know it. As I highly prize conversation, this troubles me.

My politics, well that is still developing. I am ashamed to admit I still have a lot to learn before I can comment or more specifically write about the political climate in which we live. I always say when learning, “be a sponge” and that is what I am actively engaged in at the moment.

My husband is the love of my life and we work very hard at our marriage and I value it highly.

I am opinionated and passionate and have no patience for people who settle for less than the best of what life has to offer. 

It is my hope to inspire at least one person per day to stretch beyond their comfort zone.

My goal is to inspire millions to do that, but one step at a time. 🙂

Maybe I can help YOU, reach out to me here if I can: jennifermckennasays@gmail.com

Everything you ever wanted is possible……

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“Awesome is available like never before”

Someone, somewhere in our lives told us we were not allowed to be awesome, whatever that looks like for you. It wasn’t okay to pursue our dream of being a dancer, writer or actor. Until now.

The book is not about quitting your job to go pursue a dream. It is about pursuing your dream at your job, with your family and friends in mind.  Jon Acuff gives a very detailed analysis including some great action steps what you need to do to START being awesome now. So many books are generic when it comes to this, but Acuff gives you specific guideposts to implement.

“If you want to start a coffeehouse but have never worked at one in you entire life, you need to work at Starbucks first. Maybe you will come to hate coffee. Maybe you’ll get sick of retail hours. Maybe opening a store at 4:30 a.m. every morning will be a nightmare by month two. I’d rather you find that out in you part-time job than you full-time dream”

He is not casual about being awesome. It is a very serious business. As author

Twyla Tharp says, “Mozart was hardly some naïve prodigy who sat down at a keyboard and, with God whispering in his ears, let the music flow from his fingertips. It’s a nice image for selling tickets to movies, but whether or not God has kissed your brow, you still have to work. Without learning and preparation, you won’t know how to harness the power of that kiss.”

The biggest surprise of the book for me was how Jon talks about how we can all be more awesome human beings by listening to other people or engaging other people. Sometimes we can get so caught up in the day to day minutiae that we miss out on truly incredible experience it is to know about another human being. All it takes is a sincere question, 

How are you, and a genuine desire to know, not just wait for our turn to talk.

So what does all this mean to you, dear reader? 

You need to read this book. If you are 20 or 60, or anything in between, this book will teach you to punch fear in the face and go from average to awesome. 

You just have to START!

http://www.thestartbook.com/?ectid=ja.lt.jm8

Rewriting is the best Writing

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I don’t claim to be a professional writer, but I do enjoy it and I often turn my blogs into speeches which have been very successful. As an actor, I am always looking for wonderful dialogue to say on stage. I am deeply enamored with people who write well and one such writer is Aaron Sorkin. You may know him from a series called, “The West Wing” or “Sports Night” or more recently “Newsroom”. I love the way he writes. It is evocative of the 1940s which is a favourite era of mine characterized by “fast pace” and “rat a tat” ala “His Girl Friday” and “The Philadephia Story”. I love it so much that I was working on a monologue for an audition and in working on it, I wanted to be sure I had all the words right so I went hunting online for the script of the piece I was looking for in “Sports Night” (admittedly being lazy because I didn’t want to have to listen, pause and type) but I found the original uncut script, and while its not bad writing, it has a lot of extraneous words and character choices that serve to diminish the strong character profile as built by Felicity Huffman as Dana Whittaker.. but I digress. The point of this, is that may have been a first draft or a second, but the words that ended up on screen as said by the actor were so strong and concise and I think that is a missed lesson by writers because their “baby” is perfect and they toiled over it, and sweated over it and shed blood to create those stories and characters, but often it takes an outside influence or some distance to see how much better it can be by tweaking the original brilliant concept.

So what’s my takeaway from this? If a wonderful writer, like Aaron Sorkin, has less than majestic phraseology and he has issues getting it “right” the first time, what are you so worried about? If you want to write, get started today! If its bad, it will get better. If you are already a writer, great, keep writing!

This book that I have linked to below is all about abandoning your fear and “STARTING” to go after your dreams. Check it out!

http://www.thestartbook.com/?ectid=ja.lt.jm8